INTERPUBLIC OPENS CONSUMER-FOCUSED UNIT

Will Study How Emerging Media Is Affecting Viewer Behavior

NEW YORK (AdAge.com) -- Initiative Worldwide media guru Stacey Lynn Koerner is moving to Interpublic Media to run a practice dedicated to understanding brands, media technologies and content and translating that into communications strategies.

Named president
Ms. Koerner, now Initiative’s exec VP-director of global research integration, will be president of the consumer experience practice. She will lead a team of eight specialists that will work with Interpublic’s two media agency brands, Initiative and Universal McCann. The practice will also conduct proprietary research in the business sectors in which Interpublic Media’s clients operate.

Interpublic Media recently unveiled an emerging media lab/office space in its Los Angeles offices now stocked with state-of-the art consumer electronics designed to help marketers and agencies create ideas that work in a digital, wireless world. Two more labs are currently in the works for New York.

Ms. Koerner, generally regarded as one of the industry’s leading thinkers in the field of media research, led the creation of a number of Initiative’s proprietary tools. She joined in 2001, when Interpublic Group of Cos.' merged True North Media with Initiative.

Growing need for research
The move comes amid an avalanche of new media channels, including ones created by consumers themselves. Media agencies are investing more in research to determine just how their target audiences are getting their information and entertainment.

“Consumers are moving fluidly and dynamically through media and content today,” Ms. Koerner said in a statement. “Our challenge is to create brand experiences that move with them in ways that heighten their engagement rather than disrupt it.”

Earlier this week, Publicis Groupe unveiled Denuo, a new stand-alone business unit focused on emerging media.